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Jessica Nordell
Jessica '('Jess, J.D.)' Nordell' is an American poet and essayist. Life Youth and education Nordell was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. At age 7, she won a cake of soap in the shape of the Marvin comic strip character for her entry in a Green Bay Press-Gazette art contest. While a student at Washington Middle School, she taught art classes for neighborhood children in her parents' backyard and organized an all-school sit-in to protest a policy that gave students only 15 minutes for lunch. The policy was revoked shortly afterwards. Nordell attended Notre Dame de la Baie Academy high school, where she was an active member of the debate and forensics teams and the host of Alice in Wonderland costume parties. For 2 years she attended MIT, where her freshman advisor was Seth Lloyd, now director of the Center for Extreme Quantum Information Theory at MIT. After 2 years, Nordell transferred to Harvard University and received a B.A in physics. She later earned a certificate in visual art from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the Martha Meier Renk Distinguished Poetry Fellow. Career Nordell was a staff comedy writer during 2003-2005 for A Prairie Home Companion,GK's Travel Blog, September 1, 2003Interview with Prairie Home Staff Writer Jessica Nordell a live radio variety show hosted by Garrison Keillor. While on staff, she co-created and produced the 5-part interview series Literary Friendships, featuring writer pairs Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, Sandra Cisneros and Joy Harjo, Michael Cunningham and Marie Howe, Robert Bly and Donald Hall, and Dana Gioia and Kay Ryan. Her essays have appeared in the ''New York Times'', Slate, and Salon. Nordell's essay "Another One Rides the Cometbus," an appreciation of Aaron Cometbus's Cometbus magazine, appeared in the essay collection Before the Mortgage: Real stories of brazen loves, broken leases, and the perplexing pursuit of adulthood. Nordell's poems have appeared in FIELD and the now defunct Speakeasy magazine. In 2006, Nordell cowrote the absurdist family drama Where's Franklin? with playwright Jordan Harrison. The play was broadcasted on Minnesota Public Radio. In 2006-2007, Nordell was a freelance journalist and the associate producer for Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett,Speaking of Faith Blog: Permutations of Our Productions On Vodou a public radio program about "religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas." Recognition In 2003 Nordell won the 1st Speakeasy Prize for poetry, judged by Naomi Shihab Nye.Green Bay Native Wins Speakeasy Poetry Prize Her series Literary Friendships won a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television.About, Jessica Nordell. Web, Sep. 16, 2018. Publications Non-fiction *''Before the Mortgage: Real stories of brazen loves, broken leases, and the perplexing pursuit of adulthood'' (edited by Christina Amini & Rachel Hutton). New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. * "Home Sweet Prairie Home", Salon, September, 2006. *"Positions of Power: How female ambition is shaped", Slate.com (November 21, 2006) *"The Visitor, New York Times, November 2, 2008. See also *List of U.S. poets References External links ;About *Jessica Nordell Official website Category:American poets Category:Living people Category:American essayists Category:American women writers Category:21st-century poets Category:21st-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets